This invention relates to fans and more specifically to their protective grill assemblies.
Electrically powered fans typically have a motor mounted within a stationary base that is positioned upon a table or a floor. In operation, the motor rotates an annular array of blades. These blades are typically encased within a protective safety grill to prevent direct access to the rotating blades.
Fans are sometimes sold at retail with their safety grills packed separately from the fan blades for compactness. Once the components are unpacked by the buyer the safety grill must be mounted in place to protect individuals from the blades. To do this, the grills have typically been designed in two halves, a front half and a rear half. These two halves are positioned on either side of the blades and then coupled together to form a complete safety grill. These two grill halves are typically coupled together with the use of mounting screws which are passed from one half to the other, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,547,343. This work has been tedious and cumbersome as the installer must align the mounting holes of the grill halves and torque the screws all while having to hold the grill halves together. These two grill halves are also disconnected and later reconnected to each other in order to gain access to the blades during periodic cleaning.
Fans have been designed to be coupled together by one grill half having an annular array of peripheral slots while the other grill half has an annular array of tabs which mate with the slots, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,454,537. These types of tabs however often break or become loose over time causing a dismounting process of the two halves. A variation of this concept is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,213,718 wherein hooks are utilized to grasp the peripheral rim of a grill.
Fans have also been designed to have these two grill halves held together by an expandable mounting ring. Here, each grill half has a peripheral flange of approximately the same size and shape which when adjacent each other are positioned within an inwardly facing channel in the expanded mounting ring. The ends of the mounting ring are then brought together to encase the peripheral flanges of the two halves and thereby fix their position. The ends are typically brought together with a mounting bolt that passes from one end of the mounting ring to the other, which when tightened brings the two ends together and thereby slightly collapses the ring. This design has proven to be difficult to assemble as the installer must keep the two halves aligned, while positioning the ring about the peripheral flanges, all while simultaneously attempting to torque the mounting bolt and manually maintaining the ends in close proximity to each other.
Accordingly, it is seen that a need remains for a fan capable of having its grill mounted and dismounted in a more efficient and easier manner. It is to the provision of such therefore that the present invention is primarily directed.
In a preferred form of the invention a fan comprises a base, an electric motor coupled to the base, an annular array of blades mounted to the motor, a first grill half having a peripheral rim, a second grill half having a peripheral rim, and a mounting ring. The mounting ring has a channel therein sized and shaped to receive the first grill half peripheral rim and the second grill half peripheral rim. The mounting ring also has a first end and a second end, one end having a latch mounted thereon configured to be received by a catch associated with the other end. The mounting ring also has locking means for locking the ends together. With this construction, the mounting ring captures the peripheral rims of the two grill halves and the ends are temporarily coupled together through the use of the latch and catch, and the ends are then locked together through the use of the locking means without requiring an installer to manually maintain the relative positions of the ends during the locking process.